A Trick of Light

Gertrud lived with her father Max Skladanowky and her uncles Emil and Eugen in Pankow near Berlin. Her everyday life was shaped by the inventive spirit of her father and uncles. She had a very close relationship with all of them, but especially Eugen, who worked as a clown and magician. Her father has been working long on the invention of a device that can play back moving images. So far, together with Emil, he earns his living mainly by demonstrating dissolving views or magic lanterns at fairs. Gertrud finds this form of entertainment boring and inauthentic and feels she must push them ahead with development. To Gertrud's disappointment her uncle Eugen had to go away because he took a job with the circus. She knew he would be gone for a long period of time. Gertrud doesn't want to believe that and looks in the box her father created. In doing this she accidentally exposes the first set of film strips. Luckily, the second set was kept safe. Max then solved the problem of transporting the film and can proudly present his life size projection of his brother for Gertrud. Others are also secretly interested in Skladanowsky's invention, but the family is able to repeatedly put the spy to flight.

On December 28th 1895, Max Skladanowsky is sitting with his brother Emil in the Grand Café on the Boulevard des Capucines in Paris and witnesses the Lumière brothers' demonstration. It is clear to him that his own apparatus is hopelessly inferior to the invention of the French. He remembers the preparations for his own demonstration: Word of the groundbreaking invention has already gotten around in Berlin, and so many artists gather to let the Skladanowskys capture them on film strips in a beer garden. The operators of the well-known vaudeville company Wintergarten on Friedrichstraße got wind of it and are trying to go to Pankow to offer the brothers a business deal. The spy, watching from a distance, tries to find out as much as possible. Emil over hears a thief offering the vaudeville owners his rival production. As he follows the man he is satisfied and relieved when he witnesses the embarrassment of the thief in his basement before the eyes of directors when his bicycle powered contraption explodes. When the brothers are posting advertisements for the Winder Garden show, the Skladanowskys discover that a famous artist is in town and performing her famous serpentine dance. They manage to get the lady to perform in front of their camera. This was supposed to add the finishing touches to their film, but during the nightly engagement between Emil and Josephine, who is the beer garden waitress he likes, the two embrace in a kiss. Emil accidentally holds a burning candle too close to the hanging film strips and one catches fire. The film that was hanging was that of the serpentine dancer, was now destroyed. Emil then decided to film Josephine performing the dance to recreate the lost film. When the final film showing takes place, neither Max nor the audience notice the mistake. Only the original performer, who is watching, begins to question what she is seeing. This is quickly forgotten when she receives the applause from the crowd. The film showing was a complete success.

In the present, Lucie Hürtgen-Skladanowsky, born in 1904 as the younger daughter of Max Skladanowsky, tells of her memories of her father, her uncles, her sister and the pioneering days of cinema. Suddenly Eugen and Gertrud reappear and look around the room. The scene, immersed in color, returns to black and white. When Eugen and his little niece see the well-known spy at the window, they scare him away. A modern cab is waiting for the two, but Eugen conjures up a more "contemporary" carriage in which they drive away. They then disappear at a construction site of Potsdamer Platz.

The film was nominated and the winner of the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murano-Award at the "Day of the German Short Film" in 1996. The film as also shown at two international film festivals, the Berlin International Film Festival and the International Film Festival Rotterdam, both in 1997.

Overall the reception of the film was positive as it combined the old film as well as new film. Its release was successful and received a lot of positive reviews on the historical and educational purposes of its making.[3] It was technologically challenging to make but reviews had high praise in its production process and its ultimate product.[4]